


Office Hours

by Belle86



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Kaiju, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 00:17:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5143313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belle86/pseuds/Belle86
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako is in her last semester at UC Berkeley, completing a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  </p>
<p>When her advisor tells her she needs one more humanities course for graduation, she figures Western Civilization with Professor Hansen can’t be too bad.</p>
<p>In which being paired up with Chuck Hansen for a senior project ends up being a blessing in disguise, Raleigh and Yancy are terrible, but a dorkable, roommates, and Sasha Kaidonovsky is the best friend a girl could have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

College freshman were the fucking worst.

At least Mako thought so. Not the most unreasonable of feelings, considering she was graduating at the end of this semester and was three years ahead of them on several levels, but still, they annoyed her to no end.

So as she looked around at the other students in the 100-level history course she’d enrolled in because her advisor _had just realized_ that she needed one more humanities course for her graduation requirements, she was slowly accepting that she was going to spend a good amount of this semester being annoyed. 

She had another five or so minutes before class started, so she pulled out the book she was in the middle of, figuring she could get a few pages in before it did.

Mako heard the door to the small lecture hall bang closed and a figure moved past her down the stairs that divided the room in half, glancing through her peripheral vision. Soon after, she heard whispers and giggling coming from a nearby group of girls.

_Great,_ she thought, _the guy’s probably ‘dreamy’_. 

She rolled her eyes and went back to reading, trying not to get too agitated at the prospect of spending the semester listening to teenagers swoon over whatever floppy-haired surfer boy was teaching an entry-level history course.

“Alright, you lot, let’s get started.” 

Damn. Where did that voice come from, and did it come in blanket form? 

Mako looked toward the front of the hall, her book forgotten, the man standing at the front had his back to the room, but Mako could make out one hell of a set of shoulders through his tan linen shirt, tucked into olive green khakis.

She glanced down at her printed schedule on her desk - 

\--HIS 104 - History of Western Civilization to 1650  
\--Dwinelle Hall - Room 204  
\--Mon. Wed. - 2:30-4:30pm  
\--Prof. H. Hansen

If Professor H. Hansen was anything, he was not a boy. Likely late-thirties or early-forties, tall and broad-shouldered, with close-cropped red hair and piercing blue eyes, he carried himself like a boxer as he traversed the stairs again to pass out stacks of the syllabus. When he passed her again, Mako got a better look at his face, freckled with a sharp, strong nose and a jaw she could write fucking sonnets about. 

The Australian drawl to his words tied everything into a nice, neat, fucking hot package.

Mako sent a silent thanks to Ms. Shulman for being the worst academic advisor in the history of UC Berkeley and uncapped her pen, suddenly very interested in the politics and society of Ancient Greece.

* * * * * 

“So why is this final project so bad? Already?”

Mako groaned from the couch as Raleigh set down two BLT’s on the coffee table. One of the biggest benefits of sharing an apartment with the Beckets Boys - they were both excellent chefs.

She took a bite and took her time chewing, trying put to into words exactly why her project for her Senior Seminar class annoyed her so much. Robotics Engineering was going to be challenging enough, but building a functional, personal-use robot was going to be more than challenging.

Especially since having Chuck Hansen as her partner was going to make the project twice as hard as it had to be. At least.

“My partner is an ass.”

Well that summed it up.

Raleigh raised his eyebrows over his own sandwich, talking through a mouth full of food, “I feel like there’s more to this story.”

Mako rolled her eyes. She’d been in a handful of classes before with Chuck. While he was more than bright - Mako was pretty sure they were in contention for valedictorian - he really was, for lack of a better word, an ass. He was smug, arrogant, he picked fights with other classmates that had the bad luck of being put into project groups with him, he back-talked professors. He was an ass.

“I just know him from other classes we’ve taken together, and I just know that working with him is not going to be pleasant.”

“So I’m assuming you didn’t get to chose your partners.”

She sighed. “No, and when I asked Dr. Lightcap, she said this was the best way to assure neither of us found a way to sabotage each other’s project.”

“Sabotage?” Raleigh laughed, “what, did she think you were gonna Mission: Impossible your way into his dorm room and steal his robot?”

“Apparently so,” she said, shrugging, “at least we don’t have to work in the labs here - he said he has a workshop that his father let him build in their garage, and he was very emphatic that his tools were better than the ones on campus.”

“Isn’t his dad a history professor here?”

Mako shrugged, “I can’t imagine there are too many red-haired Australians with the last name Hansen in the area.”

Raleigh pointed at her with his sandwich, “I’ve taken a couple of his classes, and if this lab partner of yours is as hot as his dad, I might have to drop by with cookies or some shit.”

“Go right ahead.” She meant it as a joke, but as she spoke the words it dawned on her that Chuck Hansen was exactly Raleigh’s type and she groaned inwardly. Poor, sweet, jerk-magnet Raleigh.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” she said, “he mentioned a dog, so at least there’s a dog there.”

“Professor Hansen will be there, too,” Raleigh said, and waggled his eyebrows at her.

Mako balled up her paper napkin and bounced it off his forehead.

* * * * *

After class, Mako followed Chuck back to his house, parking behind his cloth-top olive green Jeep in the driveway of the modest ranch home, next to a newer-looking dark grey Nissan.

Chuck hadn’t been lying about the quality of his home workshop. The two-car garage had been fully outfitted with everything their on-campus labs had, plus a few extras that Mako was convinced had been purchased with pure testosterone. The exercise equipment in one corner only added to the effect.

After an hour of laying out basic blueprints for the ‘bot, which they’d decided on calling a ‘jaeger’, she needed a break and asked for directions to the restroom.

Not looking up, Chuck jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “inside, through the living room and down the hall, on the left past the study.”

“Right, be right back,” she said, getting up to head inside.

The house was nice. Warm and inviting, and clearly occupied solely by men, not a whole lot of decorative touches, everything looked comfortable, but utilitarian.

Warm, neutral Earth tones dominated, primarily greens and tans. A large, dark brown sectional took up most of the living room, the galley kitchen looked like it got used often enough, and led to a large dining area that connected to the living room. Sliding glass doors at the back of the combined rooms opened up to what looked like a large deck with a grill, lounge chairs, and an outdoor dining set.

She walked past the kitchen down the hallway that Chuck had mentioned that seemed to lead to the rest of the rooms in the house; Chuck’s bedroom on the right, probably the master bedroom at the end, and on the left was a study, she grinned at the a large Australian flag hanging on the wall above the leather couch and continued to the bathroom just past it.

She left the bathroom and turned back down the hall, passing the kitchen on her way. A figure caught her eye as she passed - she didn’t realize she’d stopped walking until she’d been standing still for several moments.

Standing in front of the open refrigerator was Professor Hansen, wearing black athletic shorts and running shoes. His head was back, drinking deeply from a bottle of water.

Shirtless.

Shirtless and holy mother of land and sea, since when did forty-something college professors look like that?

Her first thought was, _fuck._

Her second thought was also, _fuck._

Her third thought was, _I should have majored in History._

Even through the button-downs he wore in class, she’d been able to tell he was in shape, but despite how shamelessly she’d ogled him while he was teaching, her imagination hadn’t come close to this. 

The man was strapped with thick, hard, rounded muscle; broad, firm chest, arms like tree trunks and chiseled abs leading down to the v-shaped muscle that disappeared under his shorts that Mako was sure had an actual name, but it was lost on her right now. All that was coming to mind was what her friend Sasha called them, which was ‘tongue gutters’ and was absolutely vulgar, filthy, crude and why was the tip of her tongue pushing against her front teeth--

Seemingly out of nowhere, a brindled bulldog came barreling into her legs, barking and drooling everywhere.

Startled by the commotion, Professor Hansen jumped, spilling water down his neck and chest.

“Bloody hell, I’m sorry,” he wiped at the water on his chest with the shirt, “didn’t see you there.”

The dog was still trying to get her attention at her feet, barking and butting his head against her legs. She dumbly reached down to give him a pat.

“Sorry about him,” Professor Hansen said, crossing the few feet between them to hook his hand into the dog’s collar, “sees a pretty girl and he gets all wound up.”

She was incredibly glad that he couldn’t see her face as he leant down to wrangle the dog away. Not just because she was certain she had a look on her face somewhere between ‘dumb’ and ‘really fucking dumb’ at the compliment, but because he was now directly in front of her, shirtless, sweating from his run, smelling musky and spicy and everything a man should fucking smell like and holy fuck she could lie down and take a goddamn nap across those shoulders--

“Max, go lie down!” He snapped his fingers at the dog, breaking her concentration as Max trotted off through the kitchen to the living room.

“Mori, right?”

He knew her name.

Of course he knew her fucking name. He’d taken roll. Taken roll in class. The class that he taught. The class that she took and that he taught.

She nodded quickly, “Mako. Mori. Makomori.”

She had a 3.997 GPA, resumes, academic awards, and school transcripts that proved her to be an articulate, intelligent woman. Anyone who knew her could attest to that fact.

But at this moment, there existed a grand total of seven words in her mind, not all of them were in English and most of them were obscene.

“I’m...ah, here…” she gestured toward the garage, “project.”

He quickly shrugged his t-shirt back on, “right, yeah, Chuck told me.”

She nodded slowly, willing her brain to come up with something to say other than _your shirt’s on inside out, you should take it off again_.

“I’m sorry, I just got back from a run,” he said, plucking at the shirt’s hem, “ ‘s hot out.”

She shrugged slightly, normal mannerisms and vocabulary beginning to return to her, “I live with two guys, neither of them wear shirts.”

Well, that sounded just great.

Lucky for her, he grinned. “In that case I won’t worry about it too much. Look, it’s getting to be around dinner time, you’re welcome to stay, if you like. I’ll be fully clothed, promise.”

_That’s a shame._

Her traitor mouth managed to keep that one inside.

“Yeah, sure, that sounds great. Thanks… Professor Hansen?”

“Oh, ha,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Herc’s fine.”

“Herc?” That had to be short for something.

He nodded, “dinner’s chicken and whatever veg is in the fridge, that alright?”

“Sounds great.”

Professor Hansen - _Herc_ \- gave her a quick smile and nod before turning to head down the hallway, and Mako made her way back to the garage, resolutely ignoring the warmth in the pit of her stomach.

“Did you get lost?” Chuck asked when she came through the door, “not exactly a big house.”

Mako sat down next to him, leaning over the blueprint, “I was talking to your dad, actually. He invited me to stay for dinner.”

Chuck scoffed, shaking his head slightly.

“If you’re not ok with it, I won’t.”

He dropped the drafting pencil back onto the table and stood. “If your life is so boring that you need to waste a night eating dinner with me and my old man, then, by all means, stay.”

“Well I already said yes, so,” she shrugged. Sure, that was the only reason she wanted to stay for dinner. To be polite. That was all.

* * * * * 

She had to give Raleigh and Yancy credit - they’d only made seven hot-for-teacher jokes at her expense since she’d told them what happened at the Hansen’s house.

Of course, she’d only told them three minutes ago, but for them, it was reserved.

“So how often are you going to be going over there?” Yancy asked from one of the armchairs in their living room.

“Two or three times a week, depending on how much work we have to do.”

“You mean depending on how much perving you have to do,” Raleigh said, coming back from the kitchen with beers for the three of them, taking a seat next to Mako on the couch.

“I was not _perving_ , Raleigh! It just happened, he was just there, and I was there, and - I don’t - whatever.”

“But then you stayed for dinner,” he said.

Yancy laughed, “that’s right, you did! Did you amuse his bouche?”

“Did he butter your bread?” Raleigh said.

“Did you meat his balls?”

“Did he _pass you the salt_?”

“Rals, what?”

“You know, cause, like, it’s salty--”

“Oh Jesus, kid, that was awful.”

Mako took the break in their jokes as an opportunity to defend herself, and hopefully lay the subject to rest, “he invited me, I didn’t want to be rude. Plus, if I’m going to be over there a lot, it would be beneficial to try to get along better with Chuck.”

“That’s right,” Raleigh said, “best to get on your future step-son’s good side.”

Yancy just laughed. “It does sound like the start of a bad porn, Mak’s, you have to admit.”

Mako rolled her eyes. She’d known better than to tell them, and yet, she’d told them anyway. She deserved their bad jokes and the imitation of porno soundtracks that Raleigh had transitioned into.

“I have work to do,” she said, and stood up from the couch.

“Ooooooo,” came from the Beckets, in perfect unison.

She ignored them and headed back toward her room, beer in one hand, the other over her head with her middle finger extended as Raleigh shouted to her to make her “seduction plan more subtle than ogling the guy in the kitchen!”

Of course, Yancy joined back in, “you know, sit in the front row, pull a Basic Instinct.”

“Ask for some extra credit assignments and then show up to his office in lingerie.”

“Staple a naked picture of yourself to your next paper.”

“Staple your panties to your next paper!”

She kicked the door shut behind her.

Jerks.


	2. Chapter 2

“Chuck, plates.”

Mako looked over from the kitchen sink, almost done getting the grease off of her hands, dish soap really did work best, to where her lab partner sat at the table, completely engrossed in typing something on his phone.

“Chuck,” Herc repeated from the stove, “plates. Unless you want to eat off the table.”

When no answer came from the round table in the dining area, Mako dried her hands quickly and pulled open the cabinet to her left, “all afternoon.”

“What, on the phone like that?” He asked, giving the skillet of vegetables one last toss before shaking them into the chipped serving dish on the counter next to the platter of resting chicken cutlets.

She nodded, “good thing I was here to actually get some work done.”

Herc turned toward her with a grin, “good thing you’re here indeed.”

 _Plates, Mori, plates,_ she thought, following Herc to the dining area. Plates and silverware out, she took up her usual spot to Herc’s left at the round table.

With the work on the jaeger becoming more and more time-consuming, she ended up at the Hansen’s more evenings than she did her own apartment. Herc’s initial offer for her to stay for dinner had become a standing invitation, one that Mako took him up on almost always.

It wasn’t exactly fancy, by Herc’s own admission he hadn’t learned to cook until he and his ex-wife had divorced when Chuck was ten. But she couldn’t deny the appeal of a handsome man cooking her dinner on the regular, followed by easy conversations that left her buoyed and warm for her drive home.

Maybe five minutes after they sat, the house phone rang. Chuck was closest, and jumped up after seeing the caller ID.

“Oi, it’s mum!”

Herc scowled slightly, “tell her you’ll call her back later, Chuck, we’re having dinner.”

Chuck ignores him, answering anyway and taking the phone down the hall to talk in his room. After a long pull from his beer, Herc scrubbed a hand across his face and checked his watch.

“What time is it there?” Mako asked. She couldn’t imagine that managing the time difference between here and Australia was a cake walk.

“Two in the afternoon, about,” he shook his head a bit, exasperated, “she knows we’re probably eating dinner. ‘S usually when she calls.”

Damn. “So that’s where Chuck gets his manners from.”

That almost got a chuckle out of him, “she’s coming for graduation in May, probably calling to complain more about her flight.”

“You two don’t get along, I take it?” It felt like an understatement even as she said it.

He responded with some sort of grumbling noise from deep in his chest.

“There’s a good reason why she’s there and we aren’t, let’s leave it at that.”

Things were quiet for a moment. Mako pushed her food around on her plate a bit, took a couple small bites. It wasn’t unusual for the Hansens to snipe at each other a bit, sometimes she wondered if Herc invited her to stay so that he’d have someone else to talk to, but the topic of Chuck’s mother seemed to add another, much thicker layer of tension.

“So,” Herc broke the silence first, “midterms coming up this week, oi?”

Mako groaned through her mouthful of mashed potatoes, grinning slightly when Herc laughed.

“Dr. Gottlieb’s, probably. He’ll take something he mentioned once and base ten questions around it, it’s absolutely infuriating.”

“Not mine?” Herc asked, taking a swig of his beer, “I’m insulted.”

“Somehow I think it’s ok that a 100-level history course’s midterm is easier than a 400-level specialized engineering class.”

He barked out a laugh that gave way to a low whistle, “cutting deep there, Mori.”

“I’m pretty sure I should be exempt from your midterm.”

He smirked at her and took a sip of his beer, “I only give exemptions for the final, missy. 98 average and above.”

“I have a 99 average in your class right now,” she shot back.

“Well keep that up and you won’t have to worry about that final for a second.”

This felt oddly like flirting. Most of her time here felt like it was spent half flirting. The other half being resisting hitting Chuck with a wrench. On the list of things she probably should not be doing, flirting with her professor in front of his son had to be pretty high up.

Oh well.

She tilted her head to the side and raised both eyebrows, almost giving him doe-eyes, “are you sure? Can’t I make dessert and not have to take it?”

“That’d have to be one hell of a dessert,” he laughed. Again. She really liked making him laugh.

“Maybe next time, then.”

Herc tipped his beer bottle towards hers for a toast, “next time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was super short, and took forever, but there's more to come, I promise!


	3. Chapter 3

“If you’re going to puke in my car, please let me know so I can put the window down.”

“Nnnnggpuke,” came from the passenger seat.

Mako rolled her eyes and focused back on the road. Just her luck that the bar she and her friends from her Methods of Engineering Analysis class picked for Thursday night post-midterms happy hour also happened to be the bar that Chuck and the Wei brothers had picked for their Thursday night post-midterms blackout.

Chuck had been lightyears ahead of everyone else in the bar. When both groups of friends suddenly became scarce, it had fallen to Mako to get him home.

She pulled into the Hansen’s driveway and looked over at Chuck. He wasn’t unconscious, but was getting close. The bouncer at the bar had had to practically carry him to her car, there was no way she was getting him into the house on her own.

With a sigh, she got out of the car and walked up to the front door, knocking quickly. She nervously straightened her top and smoothed her hair while she waited. The lights were on, so she wasn’t worried she was waking anyone up, but still she held her breath for a moment as the door opened.

Maybe it was the time of night, maybe it was the fact that the white henley Herc wore looked like it had gone through the dryer a few too many times, but she suddenly didn’t feel so put out about having to bring Chuck home anymore.

“Mako? ‘S something wrong?”

“Well, no, not, um, not really. It’s just,” she gestured back towards her car in the driveway, “um, we were all out tonight, and Chuck needed a ride home and I’m, um, I’m not sure I can get him out…”

Herc looked over her shoulder, where Chuck was now effectively passed out in the passenger seat of her car.

“Ahh, I see,” he said, and followed her to the car.

After some clumsy-looking shuffling, Herc managed to loop one of Chuck’s arms over his shoulders and walk him into the house, Mako following close behind.

“Do me a favor, love?” Herc asked as they neared Chuck’s bedroom, Max following close behind, “grab me a glass of water and some aspirin from the medicine cabinet?”

Ignoring how nice it sounded when he called her _love_ , she grabbed the supplies to alleviate Chuck’s hangover, come morning.

“Here.”

Herc took the glass from her with a slight smile of thanks, then turned back to where he had Chuck sitting propped up on the bed, “c’mon kid, drink this, yeah?”

“Hnnnggg, mmkay,” came from the bed.

After Chuck had chugged down one glass of water, Herc held it back towards Mako, who refilled it in the bathroom and came back to find Herc wedging his son under his covers, sneakers on the floor, dog at his back.

Fresh glass of water on the nightstand, aspirin next to it, Herc tucked a pillow behind Chuck’s back and joined Mako in the hallway. He pulled the door to Chuck’s room nearly closed, Mako assumed to let the dog come and go as he pleased, and turned to her, his grin almost sheepish.

“Thanks for getting him home,” he said, gesturing in the direction of the kitchen, “can I get you anything?”

She probably should have said that she wouldn’t want to put him out, that it was late, that she should go, head home.

But, “sure, thanks. Whatever you’re having is fine,” came out instead.

They turned into the kitchen and Herc gestured for her to sit at the table, where it looked like he’d been grading papers earlier. Mako took a seat and picked a paper up off the stack, wiggling it at him, “should I be allowed anywhere near these? Wouldn’t that be tampering or something like that?”

There was that laugh again as he came over with another wine glass, grabbed the open bottle of red that was already on the table, “not your class, Mori, tamper away.”

He poured her a glass and topped off his own, they both raised their glasses, “to my son someday learning how to hold his liquor.”

They clinked the glasses together, Mako taking a long sip and sucking on her molars as she swallowed.

“Strong, right?” Herc asked, “sorry, not everyone likes ‘em like this, but I do, nice bold shiraz, reminds me of home.”

She shook her head, “no it’s lovely, I just usually drink white, is all.”

Herc nodded and grinned at her over his glass, “happy to broaden your horizons, then, Miss Mori.”

Goddamn, she liked the way he said her name.

The rest of that bottle and half of another one later found them in an in-depth argument over whether Holly Golightly was an opportunistic prostitute or a damaged soul desperately trying to outrun a cycle of abuse. Damaged soul was winning, mostly due to Herc surprisingly being able to quote half the movie.

Mako swirled the last mouthful of wine still in her glass and fixed Herc with a look, “tell me the truth, how many times have you seen this film?”

“Once or twice,” he shrugged.

“Once or twice?” She repeated, cocking her head to the side, “is that some sort of code for at least a hundred? That you lost count sometime around when you started watching it every night before you went to sleep?”

Herc leaned toward her, placing his glass on the table in front of him as he did. Her personal space invaded, there was that wonderful scent again, musk and sandalwood, “you wouldn’t be making fun of me, now, would you?”

That warmth in her stomach had to be the wine, right? Definitely not how close Herc was to her, or how intensely blue his eyes were, or the fact that this kitchen table had become her favorite place to be over the last few weeks.

Her voice when she spoke was low and sultry, even to her own ears, as she leaned in closer, setting her glass down on the tabletop, “why would I do that?”

The room was suddenly so warm, her breath so loud but his sounded just the slightest bit louder and all she wanted to do was just… just lean just so much closer and--

Their mouths crashed together and she didn’t care that she couldn’t tell who actually kissed who. The kiss was hard, it was hungry, and it was all Mako could do not to throw herself forward and climb into Herc’s lap.

They grappled in closer to each other, knees colliding, hands grasping for purchase on shoulders, arms and hips. Chairs scraped over the tile as they finally stumbled to their feet, Herc directing them a few steps to the counter where they landed, hips pressed together, that broad, firm body finally pressed all up against hers. She opened her mouth easily when his tongue darted out to swipe across her bottom lip, his mouth tasting like wine and something sweeter behind it that she wanted to chase.

Mako’s whimper at that broke the kiss, though not by much. They stayed put for a moment, panting, and their eyes caught again, those pools of blue she could fucking drown in.

“Thought I was a damn fool, having a crush like a bloody teenager,” he said, his voice husky and low.

“Makes two of us.”

He leaned in close, pushing the hair out of her face that had fallen there and kissed her again, hard and commanding and overwhelming. She moaned eagerly and rolled her hips up against his, her hands running everywhere they could reach, their harsh breathing echoing through the kitchen.

Herc pulled her to his chest, one broad hand pressed at the small of her back. Her feet rose up out of the flats she wore as she went up to her toes, chasing contact and heat. She left them behind as he turned them, his own back now against the fridge. His hands roamed up and down her back before settling on her hips.

He whispered against her lips, “this has to be a bad idea,” but his hands stayed where they were.

“Has to be,” she whispered back.

She gently plucked at one of the buttons on his henley and looked up at him, that chance there that she had to take, “doesn’t feel like one, though.”

“No it doesn’t.”

And with that, his mouth was back on hers, hot and searching as he gripped her hips harder and walked her backwards down the hall.

Her back hit the closed door to his bedroom and he pulled back again, breathing hard, his eyes locked on hers, “you sure about this, pretty girl?”

She held her breath, her heartbeat ringing in her ears.

If she left now, they could chalk this up to the wine and the late hour. Class on Monday would be awkward, working on the jaeger on Tuesday and Wednesday even more so. It was one thing to flirt over dinner, stay for wine in the kitchen when she should have been home hours ago, let herself indulge in a harmless crush, telling herself it was nothing; day dreaming in class and on her drive home about something that would be dangerous and thrilling and exhilarating and wrong.

Something simmered under her skin, something warm and heavy like she hadn’t felt in ages, and she realized she’s only been half right. Kissing him, touching, feeling, pressing herself against him, his hands running over her, exploring her, it _was_ exhilarating, it _was_ thrilling.

But there was no danger here. Nothing about this felt wrong. Nothing about _him_ felt wrong.

Her back was against the door but he wasn’t holding her there. Close enough for her the feel the warmth of him but he wasn’t crowding her, their only point of contact his fingertips at her elbow. She had no doubt that he’d let her leave if she wanted to.

Was she sure?

She was sure. Sure that she couldn’t have made herself walk out of this house if it was on fire.

So she reached behind her and turned the handle, pushed the bedroom door open.


	4. Chapter 4

For a moment after the door swung open, the only sound was the slight squeal of the hinge. Well, that and Chuck’s snoring.

The side of his mouth quirked up, then she was off the floor, Herc lifting her up easily. She hitched her legs up against his sides, kissed him deep and eager.

He kicked the door shut and walked them to the foot of the bed, tipped them over onto it. Their joint crawl up to the pillows would have gone smoother if either of them had been willing to stop making out for three seconds, but they made it there nonetheless, limbs tangling, hands roaming. 

His hands were rough and warm against her thighs, firm around her breasts, heavy on her waist. He leaned in to kiss down her neck, the light scratch of stubble made her shiver. 

She whined when he moved back to her lips before she’d had her fill of his mouth on her throat.

“Greedy girl,” he growled against her mouth, rolled his body against hers. Mako groaned and nipped his lower lip in response.

The worn cotton of his henley was soft and warm under her palms, the heat of his skin radiating through it. Skin that she was desperate to get to so when her fingers found the hem she didn’t hesitate to slide her hand up and under, the hard muscles of his back flickering under her hand.

After an awkward moment of trying to wrestle his shirt off while they were both lying down, he leaned back and knelt up on his haunches, yanking the cursed thing off and tossing it away. She had the same internal reaction now as she did when she’d run into him post-jog in the kitchen; _fuck, Fuck,_ and _FUCK._ This time, however, the fuck-chorus was accompanied by a resolve to gather up every shirt he owned and burn them.

Before she could ogle him too openly, he hooked one finger in the v-neck of her top, tugged her up and closer by it. Once to her knees, she peeled off the tight black tee, dropping it to the bedspread. Good thing she wore the good black bra, not the ratty, albeit more comfortable one. Damn, her tits looked good.

He reached out to run the pad of his thumb along the edge of the cup, up to her shoulder, pushing the lacy strap to drape down her upper arm. She stayed still for him to do the same with the other strap, then undid the clasp herself, let the garment drop, tossed it aside.

“Oi, what’s this, then?”

What little light there was in the bedroom glinted off the silver barbell through her left nipple. She took a deep breath, trying to decipher what kind of reaction she was going to get. Whether she was about to get really roughed up, since she’s _that kind of girl _, or just have her tits be completely ignored, out of fear of hurting her.__

__“Got it last year, birthday present to myself.”_ _

__“Mmm, ‘s quite nice,” he ran a thumb along the swell of her breast, just under her nipple, “any instructions come with it?”_ _

__That certainly was promising. “Basically just pretend it isn’t there. Do what you would normally do, and don’t forget about the other one.”_ _

__He chuckled a bit at that, then ran both thumbs over her nipples, just rough enough to make her arch forward into his hands, “think that sounds easy enough.”_ _

__She kissed him again, then leaned back and hooked two fingers through a belt loop on his jeans, purposefully keeping her eyes and hands off the growing bulge in said jeans. Always best to at least pretend to be a lady. “Well I think we’re still wearing too many clothes.”_ _

__His bigs hands ran down to her hips to toy with the hem of her skirt. Mako couldn’t resist how his leaning down brought his mouth close to hers again and tugged him forward to kiss him again, causing him to fumble with the zipper and hook and eye closure on the side of her skirt._ _

__When she wasn’t faring any better with his jeans, Mako broke the kiss, “you get yours, I’ll get mine?”_ _

__“Deal,” he laughed._ _

__Quickly and completely undignified, they both stripped off, Herc to his dark grey boxer briefs, Mako to her cream-colored lace panties, and crashed back together, the kiss even more heated than before. He covered her body with his, warm and huge and heavy, pressing her back into the pillows._ _

__She lost herself in his hands, his lips, the raw strength and power that naturally flowed from him, like every part of him was trying to consume and devour her, like she was caught in a rip tide she had no desire to fight._ _

__That bulge she was doing her best to ignore earlier ground itself into her hip and the moan that fell out of her mouth would have been embarrassing in any other circumstance._ _

__“Herc?”_ _

__“Hmm,” he hummed against her throat, and fuck if that wasn’t the best feeling._ _

__“Do you have any, um…” she trailed of, raising her eyebrows when he pulled back to look at her. She had condoms in her purse, but her purse was in the car and her car keys were maybe somewhere in the kitchen, and it would certainly be less of an interruption to the evening if Herc had some at hand._ _

__“Any...what… oh shit, yeah, yeah, hang on,” he leaned over her quickly, almost clumsy, and pulled open the bedside table drawer. “In here somewhere.”_ _

__After a moment of fruitless rifling, Herc gave her a couple quick kisses and climbed off of the bed, “hang on, hang on,” he repeated, heading into the adjoining bathroom._ _

__Mako laid back into the pillows and laughed to herself listening to Herc’s muffled cursing as he tore through the bathroom to find some fucking condoms._ _

__He reappeared in the doorway, wicked grin on his face and some gold foil packets between his fingers, “found some.” He tossed them onto the nightstand, “with a perfectly respectable expiration date.”_ _

__Her own grin matched his as he wrapped one big, warm hand around her ankle and climbed back onto the bed. That hand slid up and up, spreading her thighs apart. His mouth joined, scruff rubbing rough against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh as he kissed his way up to her hip. She squirmed the higher he got, sparks skittering up through her from his touch, the delicious promise of more to come._ _

__Not wanting the evening to come to a grinding halt before it got started, Mako lightly gripped his shoulder and tugged. He looked up at her as his lips came to the edge of her panties and, eyebrows raised in question. She wasn’t in the mood to lay there bored out of her mind for the next few minutes, so she shook her head a bit and pulled him towards her. He went up easily and covered her again, pressing hot, wet, nibbling kisses up her neck as his hands roamed once more._ _

__Thick fingers settled between her thighs, rubbing against the buttery soft lace of her panties. She whined into his mouth as he circled and rubbed and pushed her wetness around._ _

__“So fuckin’ wet, pretty girl.” He slid his fingers past and under her panties to her soaking wet folds, around and over her clit, making her hips buck forward into his palm. He sank one long, blunt finger inside of her, quickly followed by another, opening them gently, stretching her wide, making her moan and writhe against him._ _

__Hungry and aching for more, she slid one hand down from his shoulder to get a good handful of that firm, muscled ass. He rolled down into her again and she moved her other hand to the waistband of his boxer briefs. Without hesitation she reached in to wrap her hand around his cock, hot and hard and fucking thick._ _

__She moaned his name, pushed herself down on his fingers, “Herc, c’mon, I want--”_ _

__“You want what?” His tone was teasing, and he spread his two fingers wide inside of her as she tried to answer._ _

__Rather than give in to the urge to beg, she gripped him with both hands and gave him one hard, firm pump, grinning fiercely as his eyes shut of their own accord. “Does a lady have to ask?”_ _

__He didn’t answer, just peeled her panties down her legs, tossed them over his shoulder. Handed her a pillow from behind her and plucked a condom off the nightstand._ _

__Mako held the pillow in her hands, confused. The hell was this for? She was momentarily distracted as he ditched his own underwear and gave the thick, flushed, perfectly impressive cock underneath a few quick pumps before rolling the condom on and looking back up at her._ _

__He took the pillow from her with a grin and rubbed his knuckles gently into her hip. “Lift up for me, love.”_ _

__Mako narrowed her eyes, still a little confused, but lifted her hips up a bit off the bedspread. Herc tucked the pillow under her. Huh._ _

__Sliding those big rough hands down her thighs, he leaned over her, brushed his lips against hers, his breath hot and sweet across her mouth. One quick, blistering kiss and he sank into her, thick and deep, spreading her open, filling her up. Her head fell back against the pillows and she lost her breath, pleasure spreading thick and hot through her._ _

__He peppered kisses to her mouth as she panted, rolled her hips up eagerly to meet him. After a few moments of awkward hand placement and the shuffling of limbs, they settled into each other, found a steady, ceaseless, fucking _delicious_ rhythm. He pushed into her just a bit deeper each time, until their hips met in sharp, wonderful heat, sparks skittering up and out through her._ _

__She wasn’t a virgin by any means. But in her experience, sex had two speeds: boring, almost unbearably slow, feeling trapped under the damp, oppressive heat of the guy on top of her watching her with a gross intensity while he tried to fight back coming before things really even got started, or a jackhammering race to the finish while she held on and hoped it got good._ _

__This was neither._ _

__This was a fucking force of nature._ _

__This was delicious stretch and fullness, a steady rhythm and tight pressure in her guts, like she’d been using her pussy the wrong way for her entire sexually active career._ _

__She hitched her legs up around his waist, pulled him closer down to her._ _

__The angle shifted and her eyes flew open, her mouth opening in a gasp at the absolute perfect, exquisite pressure, his cock driving up into the sensitive front wall of her cunt. She dug her nails into the meat of his shoulders as the muscles in her abdomen tightened, coiling like a spring._ _

__“Don’t stop, don’t-fuck _fuckdon’tstop, like that justlikethat--_ ,” and, oh, bless him to the moon and back, he did not stop. Kept that same, glorious pace as all of her muscles tensed bit by bit by bit and her breaths came quicker and shorter._ _

__He slid his hand slid from her hip to press his thumb against her clit, massaging in a small circle to pull the coil in her gut taught. Her orgasm was close, so so close. Her breath caught in her throat and she bent forward to press her face against his cheek._ _

__“Breathe, baby, breathe when you come for me.”_ _

__She did, and with one deep, gasping breath she was gone, the heat in her gut bursting as that coil released, waves of pleasure rolling through her in hard pulses. Moaning loudly against his neck, her internal muscles clenching and fluttering, she felt high, she felt full, she felt so, so _fucking good_._ _

__On the downslope of her orgasm, her feet fell back, crossing at the ankles as her body relaxed. Her toes found light purchase against his chest as his strong hands held fast to her thighs. Herc pressed them together and struck up a new rhythm with his hips, spreading his legs wider at the knees and thrusting into her shallow and quick._ _

__Mako hummed, it came out higher than she thought any sound out of her would, and let her hands fall, limp and weak down to his thighs, her fingertips brushing through the fine hairs there. Laying back, she let her eyes flutter closed and let herself be rocked forwards and back, like she was in a daze._ _

__Now it was Herc’s turn to burrow into her neck, his breath hot as he panted against her skin, chasing his own climax._ _

__“Breathe when you come for me, baby.” She echoed his own words back to him and after a quickly huffed breath of a laugh, he fell over the edge himself, groaning deeply into the crook of her neck as she felt him pulse inside her into the thin skin of the condom._ _

__Their hips gradually stopped moving and Herc lifted his head to kiss her again, a little sloppy, clumsy, earnest and wonderful._ _

__Shifting his weight off of her, he tipped them both to the side, settling on his back. She moaned as he slipped out of her and curled into his side while he pulled the condom off and dropped it into the small wastebasket next to the nightstand._ _

__He pulled her leg up, settling it more over his stomach than across his hips. “Don’t need you getting all sticky now, hmm?”_ _

__She giggled against his shoulder because, gross, but sweet, nonetheless. “Think I’m sticky enough.”_ _

__He laughed with her, his fingertips trailing up and down her back, toying with her hair while their breath returned to something approaching normal._ _

__After a long moment and an exchanged pair of very eloquent _”hey”_ s, Herc gently tilted her chin up toward him and leaned down to kiss her again. Soft and sweet this time, she melted into it easily, pressing herself up more against his warm, broad chest._ _

__They should probably be talking. Should be awkwardly hashing out whether this should happen again, if they should tell anyone, if she should sneak out now or wait till the morning. All the _ifs_ and _maybes_ and _shoulds_._ _

__She didn’t want to. She wanted them to stay sprawled out in this big, warm bed and it’s big, soft pillows. She wanted to lay here and kiss him, breath his scent, rub her fingertips raw on the stubble on his throat._ _

__It could have been the wine, the late hour, or the brain-meltingly good sex - probably the brain-meltingly good sex - but this was easy. So easy._ _

__Was this how he was with everyone he slept with? Was all this a fringe benefit of their age difference? Or was this how normal people did these kinds of things and she’d just had a track record of shittier guys than she thought?_ _

__When his hand slid down between her legs, where she was still slick, puffy, and sensitive, Mako decided she could dwell on that tomorrow._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Massive apologies for the delay on this, life's a real bitch sometimes, a bigger bitch than me.


	5. Chapter 5

In the morning, Mako woke up on her back, something warm and firm against her side. She got her bearings, blinked the sleep out of her eyes. The warmth at her side was Herc, one thick arm draped over her naked waist.

With him still asleep, she took the opportunity to look around. Much like the rest of the house, Herc’s bedroom was comfortable, manly, almost rustic. The large bed took up most of the room, the upholstered headboard almost filling the back wall aside from two dark wooden night tables and the door to the bathroom. To her left was a sliding door closet and armchair with a couple of shirts draped over the back. A large dresser with attached mirror ran along the wall opposite the bed. 

The whole place was homey, cozy. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, settled a touch more into the sleep-soft sheets. The bed was warm and comfortable, the man beside her was handsome, the slight soreness she felt was goddamn perfect.

Not a bad place to wake up.

The arm around her waist tightened slightly as Herc woke up.

One of her own arms was tucked in between him and her side but she ran the other hand over the fine, light hairs that covered his forearm.

“Mornin’.” He stretched a bit, not so much spreading out as taking a long deep breath until his back popped, then pulled her in so that she had to turn onto her side, tangling them further together.

Deliciously close against him now, she pressed her hands against that big, broad, muscled chest, dug her fingertips in just the slightest bit because she fucking could and she was fucking going to. “Good morning.”

He hummed, rumbly and low, then leaned in, brushed their noses together.

She closed the minuscule gap, pressed her lips to his, melting into the relaxed warmth and sleep-hazy kisses as his arms wrapped tighter around her.

The door to Chuck’s room banged open and they both jerked back. Various bangings in the bathroom in the main hallway followed soon after.

Herc groaned, “I guess he’s up.”

“Sounds like it. Maybe I should head out.”

He shook his head as the water started, pulled her back in close, “nah, he’s still in there, we’ve got time.”

“But,” she tried to put a sentence together as he planted kisses down her neck, making her shiver and bite her lip, “but wha--what if he...he goes to make coffee and then-ahhh, then we’re fucked.”

“I’ll distract ‘im,” he murmured between kisses, “you climb out the window later… ‘s a one-story house. I can be quiet if you can.”

He must have fucked the sense clean out of her last night, because that did not sound like that bad of a plan.

Except, “my shoes and my car keys are in the kitchen. So’s my sweater.”

“Got a point there,” he said, letting go of her so she could sit up.

She let the sheet drop down around her waist oh-so-nonchalantly. Not having to look over to know he was watching her, she stretched her arms over her head, then climbed out of the bed in a manner that she hoped looked more graceful than it felt. 

Her skirt and bra were found fairly easily, but her shirt and underwear were proving to be more elusive. Their clothing had gone fucking everywhere, she may not leave with everything she had on when she pulled up last night.

“Ah, bloody hell, look at your neck,” Herc lamented, now unfortunately clad in light blue sweatpants, but, thankfully, still without a shirt.

Mako checked the mirror above the dresser and rolled her eyes. Hickey. Right above the curve of her left shoulder, perfectly oval-shaped, speckled red.

“Got a little carried away, I guess,” he said, as sheepish as she could imagine he gets.

She had makeup in her bag that would cover it, and she couldn’t deny the thrill she got from the thought that she made him get _carried away_. “I’ll forgive you for it if you find my underwear.”

Herc held up his hands and set to looking.

A few moments later he had the tiny scrap of lace dangling from his fingertips.

She plucked them out of his hand, inelegantly pulled them on under the rest of her clothes. 

“So is this that awkward moment when you say you’re going to call and I believe you even though I shouldn’t?” Well shit, that didn’t come out as light-hearted as she was trying for, despite the nagging worry she’d felt since they’d left the reality-free warmth of the bed.

He leaned back a bit, his brow furrowed, “well I thought this was going to be the moment where I gave you back your underwear and said something charming, but…”

His trailing off made her feel terrible, and she pulled both her lips hard between her teeth.

“Hey,” he sat down on the bed, took her hands and maneuvered her around gently to stand between his spread legs.

“I meant what I said last night. This doesn’t feel like a mistake,” he said, his voice as soft as it probably got, “if you’re in, I’m in.”

“I’m in,” she said, with no hesitation, that awkward heaviness she’d felt before lifting.

He hummed low, pulled her in for a quick kiss. “Should probably keep it between us though, at least for a little while. Could complicate a lot of things, yeah?”

She couldn’t help but be a touch disappointed. Not that she’d ever been one to broadcast things about her love life. But, in her experience, things that start off kept in the dark end up needing to stay there.

_Probably should have thought of that before jumping into bed with your goddamn professor,_ she thought.

“Keeping it a total secret makes it feel like we’re doing something wrong,” she said. _Like I’m something you want to hide_ , she left out. No need for that right now.

He nodded, considering her point.

“Maybe just no one at school,” she offered.

“Probably best not to be advertising that we’re violating about a half dozen ethics rules.”

“Probably?”

One hand at her hip dropped down to quickly pinch her ass. “Hey smart arse, I don’t make it a habit to sleep with my students, haven’t exactly thought this out.”

_Good to know,_ she thought.

“So no one at school until after graduation? I can live with that,” she said, running a thumb over his forearm. “I’m pretty sure Raleigh’s been seeing someone and keeping it a secret from me, so two can play that game. I’ll probably tell Sasha, though."

“That your terrifying Russian friend I’ve heard so much about?”

“Glad you remember she’s terrifying.”

“She gonna kill me if I don’t keep you happy?”

“The other bodies have never been found.”

He grinned and pulled her in closer. “I’ll have to make sure to keep you very, very happy, then.”

Mako hummed her agreement and leaned in to give him a soft, quick kiss. One which quickly turned into a long, deep kiss, hands roaming once again. She pressed herself into him further, her body already craving the heavy weight of him around her, on top of her, fuck it if she was supposed to be leaving, those thick arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her closer were all she--

The water shut off and in one quick, panicked moment they were scrambling off the bed.

They huddled up against the door, both holding their breath listening carefully to see if Chuck would go back to his room to get dressed or go right to the kitchen. Mako covered her mouth to keep in the giggle threatening to bubble out of her.

“What’s so funny?” Herc whispered.

“Just that usually,” she whispered back, “when I’m hiding in a guys bedroom like this, it’s because his parents are outside, not his kid.”

“Oh fuck you,” he shot back lightly, play-shoving her shoulder as they both laughed.

The sound of one door opening and another closing meant that they had a window for Mako to make her escape. Herc pulled the door opened and shooed her down the hallway, following himself to keep look out. And maybe to pat her ass once or twice.

Shoes and cardigan retrieved, she met Herc by the front door, picking her keys up from the entryway table.

“Hey.” 

She’d just opened the door when his hand landed on her elbow. A quick glance behind him showed her that Chuck was nowhere in sight.

“Yeah?” She hadn’t forgotten anything, right? She had her shoes on, her cardigan, all she’d come in with was her car keys and those were in her hand--

He kissed her. Soft, but deep and wonderful, all she wanted to do melt forward into it, push him back down that hallway and tumble back into his bed.

“Not fair,” she whispered when he pulled back.

“Playin’ fair’s no fun.”

She managed a wink and a mouthed _“bye”_ before she was out the door, before she could do something stupid.

* * * * * 

Mako unlocked and opened the door to the condo as slowly and gently as possible, trying to be quiet and hoping that Raleigh and Yancy would still be asleep.  They both had afternoon classes on Fridays, so her chances were good that she could sneak to her room unnoticed--

"MAKOOOO!!!!!"  So much for that.

She closed the door and looked to the kitchen, where both Becket brothers had stopped their cooking - and making an enormous mess- and had begun clapping and cheering at her entrance.

She stood in the entryway and closed her eyes, tipping her head toward the ceiling and sighing as their cheers turned to chants of her name and clapping on both syllables.

When Yancy started doing the robot and shouting _STRIDE OF PRIDE_ , she knew she had to bring an end to their madness and made her way to the kitchen. "Alright, alright, shut it you two."

They quieted down to giggles as she walked through the galley kitchen to the coffee pot, pouring herself a cup while Raleigh poked her in the back with both hands, going, "boop, boop, boop."

Yancy composed himself first, "ok Maki-Mak's, spill it."

"Yes, tell us all about your lovah," Raleigh said, swiveling his hips and leaning back against the counter on his elbows, having gotten his fill of poking her.

Mako sipped from her mug, hoping it would hide the grin that was quickly spreading across her face, "I don't have a _lovah_ , Raleigh, stop it."

"You didn't sleep here last night," Yancy said.

"Yeah, which means you slept somewhere else," Raleigh added, "in someone else's bed."

"Just because I didn't stay here doesn't mean I slept with someone," she said.

Raleigh shook his head and grinned farther, "you don't fool me, Mako Mori, I know you too well. You got laid last night."

"Plus the make-up on your neck does nothing to hide that hickey," Yancy said.

She clapped one hand over the spot. CoverGirl could kiss her ass. "Well I'm still not telling you two anything, so stop asking."

The brothers shared a look, then turned their heads back to her and leaned against opposite counters, crossing their arms over their chests.

"Hmmmm," Yancy hummed, "curiouser and curiouser.  If this was a one-nighter you'd be throwin' around details like Mardi Gras beads."

"Yeah we'd have known how big this guy’s dick was before you even poured your coffee.”

"So this is potentially _more_ than a hit-and-quit." Yancy cocked an eyebrow at her.

Mako flicked her eyes between the two men standing on either side of her. When did they become sex-detectives? She set her coffee down on the counter, "you know what?  I'm taking a nap."

She ignored the dual "Oooooo" as she walked past them and out of the kitchen.  As she made it to her door, she heard Raleigh call after her, "hey Sasha's in your room, she came home with us last night!"

Sasha was on one side of Mako’s double bed, somehow still asleep, bleached blonde hair in a perfect, tight french braid.

Mako stripped out of her skirt and top, dropping her bra on the floor on the way to her dresser.  She pulled out an old tshirt and slipped it on, then dug her phone out of her bag and climbed under the duvet next to her sleeping friend.

She laid down under the covers, stretching and absorbing the warmth there. She gave herself about five minutes before she was out like a light, ten tops.

Not like she got a lot of sleep last night.

She giggled at the thought, clapping one hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.

Glancing over at Sasha to reassure herself that her friend was still asleep, Mako took a breath and closed her eyes, letting the feeling of last night wash over her; Herc's rough hands running over her skin, his lips slipping and pushing against her own, his hips pinning her to the bed and grinding down into hers--

Laying next to one’s sleeping best friend was not the time to be reliving really great sex. She opened her eyes and brought her phone up so she could see it while she was laying down. Distraction. Distraction was the name of the game right now.

"Oh, good morning, lovey-love," Sasha’s sleep-rough voice pulled her attention away from Buzzfeed’s _Top Ten Dildos that Look Like Kanye West_.

Sasha stretched, and Mako could see they she had clearly stolen one of Mako’s favorite tanks to sleep in. Black, ribbed, with _Wine Me, Dine Me, 69 Me_ printed on it in white ink. The trashiest thing she owned, so of course Sasha had swiped it. "Who's bed did you sleep in last night, hmm? It wasn't this one."

Sasha waggled her eyebrows, then noticed the phone in Mako's hands, "ohhhh, are you texting him now? Do you have a picture? Can I see?!"

"No!" Mako clutched the phone to her chest as the blonde grabbed at it, “there’s no guy, it’s nobody, shut up!”

Sasha leaned back and regarded Mako, one perfectly shaped eyebrow raised, “something wrong with this guy, Short-Stack? You’re acting weird.”

Mako narrowed her eyes, not appreciating Sasha’s nickname for her right now; it wasn’t Mako’s fault that her blonde friend was taller than both Raleigh and Yancy when she wore heels and Mako didn’t come close even when she wore her highest pair, “nothing’s wrong with him. I just don’t know if I want to talk about it.”

Sasha sat up completely and leveled a hard look at Mako, “you have a hickey on your neck, the Becket Boys made a ruckus when you came in, you were giving your phone googly-eyes before you knew I was awake--”

“You’ve been awake this whole time?”

“I have a hangover, forgive for trying to sleep it off.”

“I thought Russians ‘don’t get hangovers’,” she couldn’t resist adopting a phony Russian accent because really, the number of times Sasha had teased her for feeling shitty after a night of margaritas just wasn’t fair.

“Don’t change the subject. All this and now you ‘don’t want to talk about it’. Something may not be wrong, but something is definitely up. Tell me, Mako.”

Mako rolled her eyes, “nothing is up, Sasha, drop it.”

Sasha just cocked her head slightly, not softening her gaze in the slightest.

It was enough. “Ok fine, but you can’t say a word to Raleigh or Yancy.”

“I promise,” Sasha said.

“Or anyone, really,” Mako said.

“Shit. Ok, I promise,” she lifted her hand and pointed one red nail at Mako, “unless there’s some illegal nonsense going on here, in which case I reserve my right to go back on what I just said. Or get a cut of the profits.”

“Fine,” Mako sat up and turned to face her friend, “ok, so I _did_ sleep with someone last night.”

“Well, yeah - you didn’t give yourself that hickey.”

“I’m serious, though, Sasha, no one can know about this.”

Sasha raised her eyebrow again, “he doesn’t have a girlfriend or something, does he?”

“You want me to tell you or do you want to keep interrupting?”

Sasha held her hands up, conceding Mako’s point.

Mako took a deep breath, “he’s a professor at Berkeley. Herc Hansen, you might have taken his class when you did those two semesters.”

Sasha’s jaw dropped at the professor part, then shut again as she tried to remember the classes she’d taken before she had dropped out after coming into a boatload of inheritance money from her shady uncle in Moscow and opening her own boutique clothing store, “was he the one that taught that bullshit fitness class?” She wrinkled her nose, “Mako, that man smelled like cabbage.”

Mako dropped her head back in exasperation, “yes, Sasha, I spent the night with the guy who ate Butterfingers by the crate and wore the same sweat pants every day. I saw the sun shining through the sweaty hair on his gut as it stuck out from under that stained undershirt and just couldn’t help myself.”

Sasha shrieked out a laugh, “ok fine, then, refresh my memory a bit more, sassy-pants!”

“Herc. Hansen. Tall, teaches History,” Sasha’s face told her that none of this was ringing a bell, “broad shoulders, red hair, really great jaw? Australian?”

Her friend clapped her hands over her mouth and gasped, “Herc-u-LEEES? Mako, why didn’t you just say ‘hot, Australian muscle-daddy’, shit, I would have gotten it immediately! Plus I wouldn’t have to have the image of Big Mac McSnickers’s sweaty belly hair imprinted in my mind for all eternity,” she ran her hands over her hair and down her braid, then dropped them forward to grasp Mako’s hands on the bedspread, “tell...me...everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I owe lots of you lots of comments and love, and those will come, but first here's a fun fact: I actually own the shirt that Sasha swiped from Mako to sleep in. It's amazing, and I will be buried in it.


	6. Chapter 6

On Sasha’s advice, Mako went about her business as though nothing was different. She spent Saturday and Sunday doing homework and researching grad school programs, intermittently having to referee Mario Kart tournaments between Raleigh and Yancy.

Monday morning she dressed as she usually did, in a light yellow skirt that hit a couple inches above her knees and black v-neck t-shirt. And she absolutely did not change her outfit three times before deciding that this one made her boobs look the best without being overtly slutty.

That afternoon she arrived at Room 204 a few minutes early for class, as usual.

She sat in her usual seat and pulled out her book to read as she usually did. That the words made no sense was neither here nor there.

A couple minutes before class started, she felt her phone buzz in her purse by her foot. It was Sasha: 

**_Isn’t today your class with Captain Australia?_ **

_Yes, I’m here now. It starts in a couple minutes_

**_Quick, take off your bra and ice your nipples!_ **

_You’re the worst and I hate you_

**_:P_ **

She put her phone back in her bag as she heard the doors shut, and Herc’s voice booming out from the back as he made his way down the stairs to the front of the lecture hall, “all right, you lot. Phones away, other classwork away, hope you’re all over your hangovers by now because we’ve got a lot to cover.”

Hearing his voice again made her breath quicken, but she could handle it, _business as usual, Mori, you got this_ , so she very calmly opened her notebook to a fresh page and pulled a pen from her purse.

She took a breath and looked up to the front of the lecture hall _goddamn, did he always look this good?_ She had a feeling that the next two hours were going to be torture.

They were.

Mako had never had to put so much effort into paying attention to the material in a class in her life. Between wondering if Herc’s back had always been that broad and muscled or if it just seemed more so now that all she could think about was having her legs hooked around it again, and trying not to stare daggers at Janie Fertman in the front row every time she tugged her shirt lower and leaned farther over in her chair when Herc crossed to her side of the room during his lecture - it was amazing she had any notes written down whatsoever.

With about fifteen minutes left in the class time, Herc turned off the projector and walked back to the desk, taking a stack of papers from his briefcase. 

“That’s it for today, I have your papers on Luther’s 95 Theses graded, please come up and take them off my hands,” he leaned back against the desk, cradling the papers in one arm and handing them out with the other.

She purposefully waited until the crowd of students dispersed a bit before going up for her paper, mentally cursing her heart for how it had begun to pound against her ribs and, shit, should she have reapplied coverup to her neck? What if the bruise there was visible, he was going to think she was flaunting it like some kind of trashy-- why in hell did she wear this today? Black and yellow? What was she thinking - she looked like a bumblebee, or a Steelers fan, she couldn’t decide which was worse--

“Ah, Miss Mori, hope you had a good weekend,” Herc’s voice broke through her thoughts as she reached the front. He held her paper out to her, “you did some excellent work, here,” 

She reached out and took the pages from him, “thank you, yes, my weekend was lovely, yes, thank you,” if she could have one superpower, it would be to stop her face from turning red right now.

He smiled at her and gestured toward her paper, “be sure to read my notes at the end there, made some points I hope you’ll take into consideration.”

What? 

“Yes, um, I will, thank you,” they held each other’s gaze for a moment, _did his eyes get bluer? Was that even possible?_ before being interrupted.

“Professor Hansen?”

Herc closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his head, “yes, Miss Fertman?”

“I have some questions about my notes, could you help me with them?” Mako rolled her eyes, the girl even talked like she was in a bad porn, all overly-high and breathy.

Herc glanced back at Mako, giving her a small smile before turning back to Jamie, “of course, Miss Furtman, but please try to keep them short this time, I have to be home for dinner.”

Mako stifled a laugh as she made her way back up to gather her things, pleased with herself for not making a complete ass of herself in front of Herc.

She made her way up the stairs to the exit and maybe, just maybe, put a little extra swish in her step, in case he was still watching. The view she got from the corner of her eye as she turned to the door told her that he was.

* * * * * 

She didn’t look at her paper until she got home after class, wondering what ‘points’ Herc would have made for her to consider; she was incredibly thorough with this paper, thank you very much, beyond what the requirements had been.

Laying her notebooks out on the coffee table and settling down with a glass of white wine, she pulled the paper from her bag and flipped to the last page. Under her conclusion was _Excellent work. A+_ scrawled in red pen, no surprise there.

But underneath it was a yellow post it, with that same scrawl:

_Thought this would be less awkward than asking Chuck -- 510-867-5309_

Mako stopped just short of squealing and dove across the couch for her phone, managing not to spill a drop from her glass. 

She added his number to her contacts, and after several written and deleted opening lines, she went with: 

_Hope this is what you meant by taking your points into consideration_. 

The five minutes that went by until Herc answered were the longest five minutes of Mako’s life. 

**_Exactly what I meant. Was hoping I could see you again, outside of class_ **

Mako took a large sip of her wine to keep from shouting with what felt like victory. 

_I was hoping that too, I’m working on my project with Chuck tomorrow so I’ll see you then, but pretty sure that’s not what you had in mind haha_

**_Ha, too right. Thursday night? Usually get done with classes around five, don’t teach Fridays_ **

_Thursday sounds great, I’m done early too_

**_Perfect. See you tomorrow_ **

* * * * *

The next day, in the Hansen’s garage, Mako lasted an entire 18 minutes and 36 seconds before excusing herself for a bullshit ‘bathroom break’.

She didn’t have to pretend for long. She stopped and turned at the low whistle that came from the kitchen table as she passed.

Herc sat at his usual place at the table, manila folders of essays and tests and the like strewn about in front of him, laptop open, pushed to the side. 

“Excuse me, miss,” he said, teasing, “are you lost?”

“Well,” she said, convincingly nonchalant as she slowly strode into the kitchen, “I guess I do need some directions.”

He slowly turned in his seat as she got closer to the table. Once there, all it took was a gentle tug on the hem of her maybe-too-low-cut t-shirt to abandon all pretense and send her sliding into his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck without a thought. 

She only paused for a second before she leaned in to brush her lips against his, humming appreciatively when he closed the gap.

He pulled her closer into his lap, snaking an arm around her waist to pull her close for a kiss. She melted into it without a second thought. The kiss was warm and firm, everything she’d been unable to stop thinking about all weekend.

They broke momentarily for air and she smiled against his lips. “Finally,” she groaned.

“Finally? What, should I have come out into the garage and said ‘sorry to interrupt your work, but Miss Mori and I have to go make out for a bit’?”

“Yes,” she answered, seriously as she could muster, “that’s exactly what you should have done.”

“I’ll remember that for next time.” He slid his hand up her back, pulled her flush against him.

“My shirt’s got grease on it,” she protested.

“Take it off, then,” he answered, not letting her pull back.

She grinned, humming and leaning into the kiss once again.

Fuck the jaeger. Fuck the class. Fuck everything that wasn't right here in this kitchen. 

They kissed a bit longer, until her internal clock let her know that it was definitely past the reasonable window for a pee.

“We keep this up, I won’t be back in the garage until midnight,” she said.

He leaned back in the chair but kept both hands on her hips. “Wouldn’t do to interfere with your education, would it? Maybe we can sneak off after dinner,” he said with a smirk.

“I actually can’t stay for dinner tonight,” she said.

“Scared you off already? That’s a new record.”

Mako laughed and shook her head, “no, it’s Yancy’s birthday, so we’re all going out.”

“Ah, a likely excuse,” he said, “we’re still on for Thursday, yeah?”

She nodded. “Still on.”

He kissed her again, soft, lingering, “pick you up at seven?”

“It’s a date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead!! Just super busy and stressed! Sorry for the super long update time, much love to anyone still reading!


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